Removing all the soot. That's the most crucial and most challenging task facing crews cleaning up the fire damage at Swiftwater Elementary Center this week, experts say.

CHAD SMITH

Removing all the soot. That's the most crucial and most challenging task facing crews cleaning up the fire damage at Swiftwater Elementary Center this week, experts say.

Soot is a carcinogen, is fine in texture, and is airborne. In order to neutralize the risks it presents, clean-up crews must ensure that almost every last particle of the black stuff is removed, said Veronica Foceri, a remediation expert who works for the emergency clean-up company Servpro.

Clean-up crews usually use a two-pronged approach, Foceri said. First, they run rubber sponges over surfaces covered in the soot to remove it. After that, they use an "air scrubber," or commercial strength air filter, to purify the air. If wood is present, crews might use a vacuum to remove soot from the small cracks or pores in the wood.

"The hardest part is dealing with all the small particles. But it is doable," Foceri said.

But even after clean-up crews think that all the soot has been removed from a targeted area, a charred odor is sure to linger. Foceri said clean-up crews use an ozone generator to help remove that smell.

Ozone generators convert oxygen into ozone. The process is known to weaken odors and eventually remove them from the air.

Foceri said cleaning crews usually need to work on a small room that has sustained major fire damage for about a week in order to restore it to livable.

Pocono Mountain School District hasn't said whether the elementary center, which caught fire Sunday night, will be open next week when school starts.

"Engineer Larry Baker has declared the building structurally safe," Pocono Mountain School District Public Information Director Wendy Frable said. "But, before we have anyone occupying it again, we want to make sure the air is safe and that there are no lingering odors after we finish cleaning up whatever smoke and water damage is there."

The fire occurred in the roof above the hallway connecting the third-grade classrooms. Frable said the cause has officially been ruled as a lightning strike and that the school district's insurance company will determine the cost of the damage.